Read Day of Sacrifice (Day of Sacrifice #1) for Free Online Page A

without questioning him. “Simple pleasures,” he muttered by way of explanation. Flora nodded her head.
    “Do you have a speech?” she asked.
    “Pardon?” he said, even though he knew what she was talking about.
    “Something you say to your charges before the procession?” She grabbed a handful of grass and pulled it out of the ground, holding it to her nose and breathing deeply.
    “I do. Would you like to hear it?”
    “Soon enough.” Flora turned to face him, walking backwards. “Did you learn it from August’s Guardian? It seems like the kind of thing that would get passed down through the ranks or something.”
    Julian shook his head. “August didn’t have a Guardian.” If he was going to confide in someone, he supposed confiding in a woman that didn’t have anyone to tell was a good choice. Still, he was walking a fine line with her when it came to family secrets.
    Flora turned and walked alongside him. “How come? Weren’t your parents afraid something would happen to him?”
    “My parents...they were both second children, both close to their Sacrifice siblings. When they married, they agreed not to have children. They were against producing a Sacrifice.”
    “And then your mom gave birth to twins .”
    He nodded. She understood. Julian continued on, “One child they had to give up to the Gods, another identical looking child to serve as a daily reminder of their loss.” They’d arrived at the banks of the stream.
    Flora sat down on the ground, took off her clunky black boots and socks and plunged her feet in the ice cold water. “Simple pleasures,” she said, smiling up at him. “Keep talking, I want to know about you.”
    Julian shucked his shoes and socks and joined her on the ground, dangling his feet in the water. “So, they moved us here to the Outer Territory and hoped that no one had followed. That the Gods wouldn’t demand their Sacrifice.”
    Her eyes grew wide. “Did August know that he was a Sacrifice?”
    “Yes. My parents didn’t keep anything from us. If he was discovered and had to perform his familial duty, they didn’t want him to feel betrayed by our family as well.”
    “Good. Because that would be the worst fucking surprise ever.”
    Julian dipped his cupped hand into the water and took a drink, giving himself a moment to think. Which would be worse, he wondered, telling her about her own family betrayal or letting her go to her death falsely believing she was doing what she was destined to do?
     
     
     
    Flora watched Julian drink the water from his hand and wanted to be that water. Only stupid Gods would require their Sacrifices to be virgins, and at this moment being a virgin was bothering her more than the dying was. This man, this Guardian Angel she was sitting next to, was opening up to her, instructing her to feel the damned grass on her skin and she was so overwhelmed by his sweetness and honesty, she could hardly contain herself. The cold water on her feet was helping a little bit, but not nearly enough to keep all of the oh-so-wrong thoughts she was having about him from tickling her brain.
    Usually Flora would have required half a bottle of good vodka before considering making any kind of move on a Guardian. It was done, Guardians and Supernaturals hooked up all the time, but not by her and certainly not by Julian. That was under normal circumstances, though, and developing strong feelings for someone two days before you were going to die was not usual circumstances. Two more questions. She would give herself the length of two questions and answers to get her nerve up and then she was going to kiss that irresistible mouth of his, blushing and embarrassment be damned.
    “How did you become a Guardian then?” she asked.
    Julian lay back on the bank and slung his arm over his eyes. “Three years after August’s sacrifice The War began and I enlisted. My parents didn’t need me to help on the farm, really. They’d hired a few men to help with the